Mini-load warehouse racks use steel trays or pans that hold small parts or objects for storage and slide in and out on shelves formed on the racks. The racks are made of steel, can be several stories tall, and can support the building that contains them. Each of the shelves supporting a tray is formed of a pair of opposed angle irons welded between vertical rack elements. A computerized robot moves the trays in and out of their angle iron shelf supports.
To prevent metal-to-metal contact of the steel trays sliding back and forth on the steel shelves, glides are required on the shelves. These have generally been formed of a resin material such as nylon, and pop rivets have been used for riveting the resin glides or bearings onto the upper surface of each shelf angle. The pop riveting is so laborious that the thousands of glides required for a mini-load warehouse rack system constitute about 10% of the cost of the entire rack.
Other ways of attaching the shelf glides to the rack shelves have been attempted, but have failed. Extending the resin material of the glide through a hole in the shelf, for example, is not strong enough, because a resin pin extending through a hole can be sheared off when a tray hits the glide. Since sliding the trays in and out of their shelves is accomplished by a robot, satisfactory shelf glides must be strong enough to withstand direct hits as trays are shoved onto their shelves.
I have devised an improvement in shelf glides for mini-load warehouse racks. My glides are firmly anchored on their shelves to withstand the full force of tray movement, and yet my glides assemble quickly and easily onto the shelves. My glides are also inexpensive to make and substantially reduce the cost of building a mini-load warehouse rack system.